Aerohive's Channel Balloons By 600 Partners Thanks To New, Scalable Cloud Connect
Hundreds of solution providers across the globe are flocking to Aerohive Networks to capitalized on the company's new cloud networking solution Aerohive Connect.
"Partners can sell this at $229 a price point and get into a market that they weren’t in before. It's driving massive channel growth for us as well as significant scalability for partners," said Michael O'Brien, vice president of Aerohive's global channel sales (pictured). "We find ourselves displacing some of the people who might have been looking at Ubiquiti [Networks], or at Unleash [Networks] – now they're looking at Aerohive going, 'That architecture is scaling, so I can put a bunch of access points in, start with Connect and move into Select.'"
In January, the Milpitas, Calif.-based networking vendor launched Aerohive Connect, a cloud-managed wired and wireless enterprise connectivity offering aimed at small and midsized enterprises. The contains Aerohive's enterprise-grade 802.11ac access points: the AP122 with a price point of $229, and the AP130 for $299.
Since the launch of Connect, a whopping 600 solution providers have become new Aerohive partners. Approximately 60 percent of the new partners hail from North America, while the other 40 percent came from Europe or Asia.
The channel surge in the Americas is also being driven by Aerohive's new Vice President of Americas Sales, Ron Gill, who previously led North America enterprise sales at Ruckus Wireless for eight years.
"With a $229 AP, comparable products from our competitors are two-times that price out of the gate, and we're also offering them free cloud," said Gill. "This is a market that we weren't able to address before based on our selling motion. Now this solution is allowing us to change that."
Gill said historically, Aerohive targeted midsized or larger enterprises with an effort to sell a full feature set. Now with a starting point of Connect, partners can easily upgrade customers to its enterprise-class networking Aerohive Select solution, which is enabling the company and its channel to scale faster than ever.
"One of the challenges about Aerohive was scaling the business over the years," said Gill. "You can upgrade easy [to Select] because it's the same platform. You don’t have to buy another piece of hardware to change everything. You can literally upgrade from your cloud console from anywhere."
Aerohive Connect customers can upgrade to Aerohive Select which includes additional capabilities, such as advanced security and troubleshooting tools, support for BYOD programs, increased network visibility, more enterprise support options, and the ability to deploy HiveManager on-premises or in a private cloud. Connect customers can purchase an upgrade to Select at any time as their requirements change and migrate between the solutions in minutes.
Andrew Fisher, founder and CEO of the fast-growing New York, N.Y.-based solution provider Myriad Supply, ranked No. 182 on CRN's 2017 Solution Provider 500 list, said Aerohive revenues inside his company have doubled in the first half of 2017 compared to the first six months of 2016.
"Mobility solutions tend have a better professional services attach rate than other technologies, which makes it particularly attractive," said Fisher. "Also, Aerohive's recent cloud-management technology alliance with Dell promises enhanced manageability and value to clients, and has bolstered Aerohive's position in the market."
O'Brien said some customers are buying both Connect and Select for their different environments.
"That flexibility is really opening up opportunities for us, where before, we wouldn't have been looked at right out of the gate," said O'Brien. "It gets partners in at a very low price, then they can scale up easily on the same platform."